Has Pop Music Got Worse In Recent Decades?

[Dr Winston O Boogie]

You can dress it up how you like but never have we had so many stabbings, shootings etc by followers of a particular genre of music followed by certain elements of youth culture.

[montesquieu]

You can dress it up how you like but never have we had so many stabbings, shootings etc by followers of a particular genre of music followed by certain elements of youth culture.

Actually I don't disagree. There is a whole genre of music that seems to be based around glorification of violence indeed quite of few of its perpetrators seem to have been involved in violence themselves or become victims (if that's the word for someone complicit) of it.

Banning stuff is difficult though, it gets you into areas of who are the censors, what are their criteria, what are the penalties for infraction and how far do you go for example does all new music require to be fully PC? Does old music get banned as well? I can think of a few Zappa albums that might not quite pass muster for today's PC police.

[Macca]

You can dress it up how you like but never have we had so many stabbings, shootings etc by followers of a particular genre of music followed by certain elements of youth culture.

People made the same unfounded correlation between the popularity of jazz and the 'decline in moral standards' back in the 1920s. Hitler, for instance.

[struth]

its like banning or burning books just coz you dont like the massage or the performer/author.... a dangerous road to go down, and all you will do is make it mean more to the folk who like it; it wont go away, just underground

[AJSki2fly]

its like banning or burning books just coz you dont like the massage or the performer/author.... a dangerous road to go down, and all you will do is make it mean more to the folk who like it; it wont go away, just underground

Quite right, a need to educate rather than eradicate!

[Sherwood]

People made the same unfounded correlation between the popularity of jazz and the 'decline in moral standards' back in the 1920s. Hitler, for instance.

I thought the Nazis hated jazz because so many of the top musicians were black or jewish!

[struth]

I thought the Nazis hated jazz because so many of the top musicians were black or jewish!

that too, but also because it was degenerate music

[Mikeandvan]

Definitely got worse. We had some crap around back in the day, but none of it encouraged gang membership, knife crime or violence, unlike today's " this is the music of the streets bro" shit that a lot of these little twats have latched on to.

I think you might be referring to 'Drill' music, a sub genre of Grime, by criminals for criminals. And those little twats you see on park benches talking in their squeaky little faux Jamaican accents, yo gangster bro

[meBob]

"Has Pop Music Got Worse In Recent Decades?"

How much of what they (drug addled youth) listen to has any originality? If it sounds a quarter to half decent you can bet your house on it, that it belongs to someone else from the dark distant past. If its new it was created on a mixing machine with a generic beat and everything else mixed over the top to a formula.

There are "islands" of talent out there, but probably not making that much money because they don't use mixing machines.

"Has Pop Music Got Worse In Recent Decades?" - Yes!

Victor Meldrew has just left the house!!!

[alphaGT]

Actually I don't disagree. There is a whole genre of music that seems to be based around glorification of violence indeed quite of few of its perpetrators seem to have been involved in violence themselves or become victims (if that's the word for someone complicit) of it.

Banning stuff is difficult though, it gets you into areas of who are the censors, what are their criteria, what are the penalties for infraction and how far do you go for example does all new music require to be fully PC? Does old music get banned as well? I can think of a few Zappa albums that might not quite pass muster for today's PC police.

Perhaps this goes back to the old question, “Does Art imitate Life? Or does Life imitate Art?”. Does the music promote violence, or does violence promote the music? It can be hard to untangle.

Russell